ABOUT ME

I’m a freelance documentary filmmaker, and live in the UK with my wife, our son Finn and our dogs Eddie and Shelby. I’ve won over a dozen awards for my work in areas of conflict, including an Emmy, two BAFTAs, an RTS, a Grierson and the Foreign Press Association award for Journalist of the year.

I studied English Literature at Durham University, and briefly worked in the theatre before starting out as a researcher and Assistant Producer of documentaries, working with directors including Rebecca Frayn, James Runcie, Ian Macmillan and Susannah White on a variety of documentary singles and series for Channel 4 and the BBC.

In 1999, I was commissioned to direct my first film for Alt: TV, Channel 4’s fledgling strand for new directors (now called First Cut). The resulting film, Four Weeks to Find a Girlfriend was a gruesomely personal journey into the horrors of modern dating, and was shortlisted for a BAFTA (Best New Director, Factual) and nominated for a Grierson Award (Best Newcomer).

In 2014 I began a collaboration with BBC Newsnight, producing occasional short, fast turnaround documentaries about pressing current affairs. Films include a week behind the scenes at the White House briefing room, the reality of the Somerset floods, and an account of life on the front line between Russia and Ukraine. All these films and more can be seen here.

Syria: Across The Lines documented life on both sides of a sectarian frontline in rural Syria, witnessing how a once-peaceful community was breaking apart along ethnic and religious lines. The resulting film won ten prestigious awards, including an unprecedented clean sweep of an Emmy, a BAFTA, an RTS and a Grierson.

More recently, my feature length BBC documentary Abused: The Untold Story featured interviews with survivors and victims of sexual abuse by Jimmy Savile and others, many of whom had never spoken publicly before. The film was regarded as a defining insight into the real and lasting legacy of Savile's crimes.

I've won a number of international awards, including the Foreign Press Association award for "Journalist of the Year", and was the recipient of the 2014 Peter McGhee Fellowship award, which honours a filmmaker whose work reflects excellence, intelligence, fairness and scholarship. My films often focus on ordinary people in extraordinary situations, and I hope I can bring an intimacy and clarity to tough, complex subjects.